Following the conclusion of theFinnish War in 1809, Sweden lost possession ofFinland, which had constituted roughly the eastern half of the Swedish realm for centuries. Resentment towards KingGustav IV Adolf precipitated an abruptcoup d'état. Gustav Adolf (and his sonGustav) was deposed and his uncleCharles XIII was elected King in his place. However, Charles XIII was 61 years old and prematurely senile. He was also childless; one child had been stillborn and another died after less than a week. It was apparent almost as soon as Charles XIII ascended the throne that the Swedish branch of the House of Holstein-Gottorp would die with him. In 1810 theRiksdag of the Estates, the Swedish parliament, elected aDanish prince, Prince Christian August of Augustenborg, as heir-presumptive to the throne. He took the nameCharles August, but died later that same year.
At this time, EmperorNapoleon I of France controlled much of continental Europe, and some of hisclient states were headed by his siblings. The Riksdag decided to choose a king of whom Napoleon would approve. On 21 August 1810, the Riksdag elected Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, aMarshal of France, asheir presumptive to the Swedish throne.
When elected to be Swedish royalty the new heir had been calledPrince Bernadotte according to the promotions he received from Emperor Napoleon I, culminating in sovereignty over thePrincipality of Pontecorvo. Some Swedish experts have asserted that all of his male heirs have had the right to use that Italian title, since the Swedish government never made payments promised Charles John to get him to give up his position in Pontecorvo.[3]
Some members of the house who lost their royal status and Swedish titles due to unapproved marriages have also been given the titles Prince Bernadotte andCount of Wisborg in thenobility of other countries.
Bernadotte, born in the town ofPau, in the province ofBéarn, France, had risen to the rank of general during theFrench Revolution. In 1798, he marriedDésirée Clary, whose sister was married toJoseph, Napoleon's elder brother. In 1804, Napoleon promoted Bernadotte to a Marshal of France. Napoleon also granted him the title "Prince ofPontecorvo".
As theCrown Prince of Sweden, he assumed the name Charles John (Swedish:Karl Johan) and acted as regent for the remainder of Charles XIII's reign. In 1813, he broke with Napoleon and led Sweden into theanti-Napoleon alliance. When Norway was awarded to Sweden by theTreaty of Kiel, Norway resisted and declared independence, triggering abrief war between Sweden and Norway. The war ended when Bernadotte persuaded Norway to enter into apersonal union with Sweden. Instead of being merely a Swedish province, Norway remained an independent kingdom, though sharing a common monarch and foreign policy. Bernadotte reigned asCharles XIV John of Sweden and Charles III John of Norway from 5 February 1818 until his death on 8 March 1844.
KingCharles John's first known paternal ancestor was Joandou du Poey, who was a shepherd. He married Germaine de Bernadotte in 1615 in the southern French city ofPau and began using hersurname. Through her the couple owned a building there calledde Bernadotte,[4] the surname theoretically meaningYoung woman ofBéarn in local dialect.[5]
A grandson of theirs, Jean Bernadotte (1649–1698), was a weaver.[6]
Another Jean Bernadotte (1683–1760), his son, was a tailor.[7]
His son Henri Bernadotte (1711–1780) married Jeanne de Saint-Jean (1728–1809) and with her was the father of the future Swedish–Norwegian king. Henri was a localprosecutor, from a family ofartisans,[8] who had once been imprisoned for debt.[9][10] This was a modest family which occupied only one floor of the house in a cross street in a popular and peripheral district of Pau.[11]
Two branches of the French Bernadotte family survive. The elder descends from Andrew (André) Bernadotte, an older granduncle of Carl John's, with descendants today in the general population of France. The younger branch divided in two, one branch descending from the king's older brother John (Jean Évangéliste) Bernadotte (1754–1813), the heads of which were Frenchbarons as of 1810 withLouvie Palace[12] in the south of Pau as their seat (branch extinct with the death of Baron Henri Bernadotte in 1966), and the other branch being the Swedish Royal House.[13]
This is a list only of the royal house, not of the royal whole family. It excludes in-laws and living persons (2022) who were royal, i.e. born members of the royal house, who no longer are royal today. Royals currently alive are listed initalics. All are listed primarily as Swedish royalty unless otherwise noted.
D’azur, au pont à trois arches d’argent, sur une rivière de même, ombrée d’azur, et supportant deux tours du second ; au chef des princes souverains d’Empire.[14]
Tiercé en bande d’azur, d’argent et de gueules à la gerbe d’or brochant [de Vasa] et d’azur, au pont à trois arches d’argent, sur une rivière de même, ombrée d’azur et supportant deux tours du second [de Pontecorvo], le tout surmonté d’une aigle (Aigle deJupiter) contournée d’or au vol abaissé, empiétant d’un foudre du même [de Bernadotte].
Écartelé en sautoir d'or, qui est la croix de Saint-Éric, cantonnée en I, d’azur à trois couronne d’or [de Suède moderne], en II de gueules au lion d’or, couronné du même armé et lampassé de gueules tenant une hache d’armes d’argent emmanchée d’or [de Norvège], en III d’azur à trois barres ondées d’argent, au lion d’or couronné du même, armée et lampassé de gueules [de Suède ancien], au IV d’argent à la tête de griffon de gueules couronnée d’or [brisé de Scanie] sur le tout parti tranché d’azur et de gueules à la banche d’argent et à la gerbe d’or brochant sur le tout [de Vasa] et d’azur, à un pont de trois arches sommé de deux tours crénelées et posé sur une champagne ondée, le tout d’argent [de Pontecorvo], aucorbeau de sable, empiétant d’unfoudre d’or surmonté d’un chef cousu d’azur semé d’étoiles d’or [de Bernadotte].
The new feature of these arms was that the eagle of Napoleon was replaced by ablack raven of Odin. Over this was a field of stars of gold in reference to the title ofMarshal of France.
After the death of his father in 1844, prince Oscar became KingOscar I of Sweden and Norway, replaced the field of stars with theBig Dipper/Charles' Wain. In addition to the rules governing the arms of the kingdoms ofSweden-Norway, rules were established for the arms of the queen and the royal prince and princesses.
In 1885, KingOscar II of Sweden replaced the raven with the beak and talons of gold.
In 1908, KingGustav V of Sweden returned the color gold to the Napoleonic Eagle.
In 1885, KingOscar II of Sweden replaced the raven with a blackNapoleonic Eagle (Eagle of Jupiter) with the beak, talons, and lightning bolt of gold.Odin was believed to shapeshift to aneagle.
^François Velde (26 August 2011)."LL".Heraldica. Retrieved31 October 2013.
^Berghman, Arvid (1944).Dynastien Bernadottes vapen och det svenska riksvapnet. Skrifter utgivna av Riksheraldikerämbetet.Stockholm: Svensk Litteratur.OCLC492875260.
^Bramstång, Gunnar (1990).Tronrätt, bördstitel och hustillhörighet (in Swedish). Lund: Juristförlaget i Lund. pp. 54–55.ISBN978-91-544-2081-0.
Jean-Marc Olivier, "Bernadotte Revisited, or The Complexity of a Long Reign (1810–1844)", inNordic Historical Review, number 2, October 2006, pp. 127–137.
